Power-Grabs in the Meher Baba World

The Baba world is witnessing once again what has become a powerful theme in Avatar Meher Baba’s Advent.

The first Chairman of the Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Kutumb Shastri, proved to be an embezzler, and in league with other Baba lovers sought to wrest control of the Trust from the mandali. He died of a heart attack in the midst of litigation with the Trust.

Ivy Duce of Sufism (re)Reoriented betrayed the trust reposed in her by Baba through an uncontrollable dabbling in psychics, astrologers and mediums resulting, in the end, in her handing her sufi order over to the occultist Jim Mackie. The fate of this sufi order is uncertain.

Harry Kenmore’s Baba group, The Society for Avatar Meher Baba, was taken over by Anna Rosa upon his death; she proved herself a spectacularly insane leader of this group and eventually destroyed it.

This theme of the abuse of Baba’s trust has even extended itself to the embarrassing charades of the last surviving mandali, the past Chairman of the AMBPPCT, Bhau Kalchuri, who blatantly flirted with a pretentious self concept which dragged many into the Pit of Absurdity.

Now, to round the picture out, Bill LePage of Australia is making a power grab for Avatar’s Abode: he is alleging that Baba gave him a mandate to create a new Trust that would include Avatar’s Abode and Meher House in Sydney, and which would effectively give him complete control of both properties. This is a brazen lie. No other Australian player, or mandali, living or dead, has any memory of Baba giving him such a mandate. And why should Bill LePage wait until now, 46 years after Meher Baba passed away, to allege such nonsense? This is all so very pathetic and sad.

There is a common theme of brazen lies and absurd rationalizations to these instances of desperate power grabbing by individuals all of whom had a close relationship to Meher Baba. To my mind, the problem of jealousy is paramount: jealousy of those who enjoyed a more intimate trust and confidence of the Eternal Beloved.

One hopes that Meher Center, where Bill LePage has been hosted as a special guest for several months annually for the past some years, and where he has freely spread his lies, will reconsider its patronage of his contemptible behavior.

The following is an excerpt from Bill LePage’s new Trust proposal:

Please note carefully #3 and #11 as they summarize the seditious intention of this brazen lie and power-grab.

The Avatar Meher Baba Trust Australia

Background:

As declared by Avatar Meher Baba: The Avatar is always One and the Same, because God is always One and the Same, the Eternal, Indivisible Infinite One who manifests Himself in the Form of Man as the Avatar, as the Messiah, as the Prophet, as the Ancient One-the Highest of the High. This Eternally One and the Same Avatar repeats His manifestation from time to time, in different cycles, adopting different human forms and different names, in different places, to reveal Truth in different garbs and different languages, in order to raise humanity from the pit of ignorance and help free it from the bondage of delusions.

Purpose:

1. To establish within Australia a non-sectarian and non-profit religious Trust devoted and dedicated to the name and spiritual purposes of Avatar Meher Baba, and to the dissemination of his teachings, without supplanting professed religious convictions or beliefs, but for the enhancement and strengthening of the spiritual life.

2. To hold in perpetuity the property known as Meher House Sydney to be held solely as a Place of Pilgrimage for all who love and follow Avatar Meher Baba and for all who know of him and wish to know more.

3.To support fully the purpose of the Avatar’s Abode Trust as stated in its Trust Deed, with the understanding, in accordance with the expressed wish of Avatar Meher Baba, that the property known as Avatar’s Abode be incorporated in the Avatar Meher Baba Trust Australia when the time is judged right by the Avatar Meher Baba Trust Australia’s board.

4. To acquire by purchase, lease, devise, bequest, gift or otherwise such property real or personal whether improved or unimproved in any state of Australia and to improve, develop, sell, mortgage, lease or sublet such property as may be necessary or advisable to carry on the purposes and activities of this Trust.

5. To establish a reserve fund from which up to 5% can be used annually in the functions of the Trust.

6. Additional funds can be raised as necessary for particular purposes.

7. As deemed advisable, support the initiation and continuation of Avatar Meher Baba Centers in various parts of Australia.

8. Initiate, support and encourage as deemed advisable, educational, literary and cultural activities conducted in the name of Avatar Meher Baba.

9. Make gifts of real and personal property for religious, charitable and conservation purposes.

10. As deemed practical, initiate, support and encourage activities and programs based on Avatar Meher Baba’s example of love and service to those in need.

11.The Trust is to have a Board of five Trustees, who will be appointed or approved by the settler during his lifetime, and who will be permanent until death or resignation. After the settler’s death, the Board will decide on the term limits of the Trustees.

15 Responses to Power-Grabs in the Meher Baba World

Jai Baba, This is in reference to the above post.First of all saying MeherBaba world is confining Him,the entire World belongs to Him.Further it is shocking allegation that Ivy Duce SUFISM REORIENTED betrayed the trust reposed in Her is totally absurd & unwanted,
That the fate of Sufi Order is uncertain.Who are we to predict it?Until become perfect.
I had an occasion to meet Murshida Ivy Duce in 1980 before Her demise.A
Graceful & Loving Lady like Baba’s Mandali said She was very much hurt by that people
talk about Her Preceptors show occultism.She confirmed that none of Her preceptors do that.After meeting Beloved Baba She never wanted to continue Sufism but Beloved Baba
ordered Her to continue & given the new charter making it SUFISM REORIENTED & said
That He will take care that Right One becomes The Murshid. So very clear ,it is Beloved Baba’s wish.
Similar things have been said about Bhau Kalchuri,Annarosa & Bill Le Page.Since my childhood been meeting all those people and admiring their love & dedication to The Lord.No one is Perfect until becomes Sadguru.So if anything is looked
wrong is our own reflection of ignorance.In His Love,Vijay.

I have met all these individuals at least several times myself (with the exception of Shastri.) And indeed they are all Baba lovers, and in the case of Bhau, a mandali. I don’t dispute that. However, the ego, or as Ivy used to say, the “eggo”, gets in the way, sometimes all over the face, and it is to such that I refer.

I believe Baba needs BillieBoy to receive his fair share of this blog, which is 100% okay Darvish fairs fair hand it over. DarvishBilliewrites.com.au
Point4 is a bit disturbing! After all the various ways of acquiring a property, we are given the further option of ‘or otherwise’ – which I can only imagine intends piracy?! Oh and ‘devise’ is a nice freudian slip. Means device?

I agree with you about #4: it’s weird in its mercantile aspirations. Why would a charter for a Baba organization want to reserve the right to buy and sell in Baba’s name? However, the even weirder thing is that the language of Bill LePage’s proposed Trust borrows language from the Meher Center charter where there is a similar provision. What is this all about? I don’t know. Sufism (re)Reoriented has a rather weird charter as well, if I may say so. My “shoot from the hip” intuition tells me that Baba in his humor, mercy and forgiveness was saying, “go ahead, fuck it up in my name”.

‘Ivy Duce of Sufism (re)Reoriented betrayed the trust reposed in her by Baba through an uncontrollable dabbling in psychics, astrologers and mediums resulting, in the end, in her handing her sufi order over to the occultist Jim Mackie. The fate of this sufi order is uncertain.’

To say uncontrollable and claim she lost something is ABSURD!

I need to ask, WHO ARE YOU TO WRITE SUCH THINGS?
I
can see it coming from an ignorant ONE, but to say this like you have an authority to criticize a Murshid appointed by MB, and then say that Baba was disappointed by her actions shows me that you are as ignorant as those who may not know any of the facts.

I want (with respect) to demand that YOU remove this paragraph from your article that contains the spreading of false concepts.

I mentioned this to you before that the truth is with those that were there, and you can write to Ira Dietrich president of Sufism Reoriented and/or Carol Conner, the Murshida of SR to get your words in order before you spread more false ideas around the globe.

I know this too is Baba’s wish as he likes oppositions and even plans on it.
So the same may be said for what actions Ivy did.
But to say ‘uncontrollable’, as if she were a mad woman, and ‘paid the price’, when her whole life as Murshida was the actual paying the price of being devoted to the Avatars guidance of His Spiritual school when she was a Murshida in charge, [and very successfully so], IS ABSURD!

Please remove this paragraph from your postings; or write an apology to all concerned.

“Ivy Duce of Sufism (re)Reoriented betrayed the trust reposed in her by Baba through an uncontrollable dabbling in psychics, astrologers and mediums resulting, in the end, in her handing her sufi order over to the occultist Jim Mackie. The fate of this sufi order is uncertain.”

And calling Jim Mackie an Occultist is again Absurd!
Baba clearly stated that the Murshid of SR would be an Illuminated Murshid. Meaning that what was once the 5th plane (under Inayat Khans Sufi Order) was to now be to the 6th plane.
If you are thinking Jim was not aware of what he was doing, you are way out in left field again.
Dr. James Mackie, became the Murshid with Meher Baba’s guidance. (it is all on record) He was a brilliant, and very personable man of stature. I knew him personally, and he has never shown any sign of practicing occultism.

Where do you get your information from please?

It is obviously all Hearsay if it gotten from some (1 or 2) run away Sufis who left the order.as you mentioned to me in our earlier correspondence!

Thank you!

I write this with heartfelt love for all who may come across this article and be swayed by such fiction.

This is a mouthful too tough to chew. You want me to delete my hard-won convictions? I cannot do this, your protestations notwithstanding. You simply have to accept that I smell the rising stench of fermented kaka.

Sufism re-Reoriented has drunk the kool-aid. What more can I say? Baba himself referred to Ivy Duce as the “whiner”. Francis Brabazon warned about “madam the queen”. And I, what do I have to add to that? I can only say, beware of spiritual fascism.

RE : avatars abode. Okay so it’s a bit wild. But how much weight does it carry? It-s hard to imagine any single person of influence NOT opposing the plan . And blessed Bill is not young, he is the opposite of that. So the chances of any dangerous precedent being established are surely zero? It’s surely hardly more than an opportunity for the local community to get on their hobby horse and bitch and moan and carry on
Baba needs to keep their lives interesting somehow- Thanks Bill for providing this months entertainment. Or info-tainment.

Yes, I think you must be right. The reason why I posted my commentary and the extract of Bill’s new proposed Trust was for information’s sake, and for the sheer humor of it all! Also, I must be honest: I absolutely loathe the penchant of the Baba community to suppress the fact of conflict on the basis of shame, and end up cross-eyed.

I value your insights now as ever and appreciate you getting this information out there- and creating a permanent , reliable record of events for prosterity. Responding with hilarity is definitely the best response- I’d much rather see a Trust or Executive meeting all roll around burst in laughter when someone proposes something like the above, but I rather imagine righteous indignation is all one can expect. Sadly
I feel I understand your final sentence but it took a few reads, it’s not plain enough- would you mind expounding upon this idea as it is a primary motivation ( or symptom ) of many of your posts
I feel it would be important indeed deserves a post all its own, seperate from any actual incidents or individuals

PS Darvish I’m not sure shame is the reason for the community supressing conflict? Your various posts on this don’t suggest shame is the reason, either?
Perhaps something more akin to delusion or myopia?

Well, no doubt there are other reasons. This is the one that comes to mind. Shame is similar to embarrassment. Denial is often preferred to both. If people don’t want to talk about something problematic and of serious concern- repression is alive and well! Baba lovers by and large refuse to publicly discuss Bhau’s charades as anything but cute behavior, when it was anything but that. Ivy Duce is a confirmed liar- but this is almost uniformly denied. The present Chairman of AMBPPCT wants to believe that all the pressing concerns about the legal and ethical administration of Baba’s Trust Deed are of the past and undeserving of review. Go figure.